Definition of "soul-cake"

The griddle-cake mentioned by your correspondent as being made on All- hallows Eve is, I suppose, the same as the soul-cake.

1869 June 26, “Griddle”, in Notes and Queries, volume 78, number 3, page 602

The "Soul-cake," however, was rather a Halloween celebration than a Christmas-tide usage.

1882 December, J.L.W., “Soul, Soul, For a Soul-cake!”, in St. Nicholas, volume 10, number 2, page 93

The older forms of request are interesting as they show pre-Reformation Catholic phraseology, for in return for the cakes, prayers were apparently offered for the donor's soul: "A soul-cake; a soul-cake, have mercy on all Christian souls, for a soul-cake."

1930, New Catholic World - Volume 132, page 213

I have been told that a century ago, in some parts of England, Wiltshire and Dorset were named, on or just after the feast of SS Simon and Jude, 28th October, there was made a kind of fairing, buns in the shape of men and women with currants for the eyes, and it seems quite possible that these were the traditional soul-cake.

2012, Montague Summers, The Vampire in Lore and Legend